CHAP. I, THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 117 



Moses who (I told you before) writ the book of Job, 

 and the prophet Amos who was a shepherd, were both 

 Anglers : for you shall, in all the Old Testament, find 

 fish-hooks, I think, but twice mentioned, namely, by 

 meek Moses the friend of God, and by the humble 

 prophet Amos *. 



Concerning which last, namely, the prophet Amos, I 

 shall make but this observation, that he that shall 

 read the humble, lowly, plain style of that prophet ; 

 and compare it with the high, glorious, eloquent style 

 of the prophet Isaiah ; though they be, both, equally 

 true ; may easily believe Amos to be, not only a 

 shepherd, but a good-natured plain fisherman. 



Which I do the rather believe ; by comparing 

 the affectionate, loving, lowly, humble Epistles of 

 St. Peter, St. James, and St. John, whom we know 

 were all fishers, with the glorious language and high 

 metaphors of St. Paul, who \ve may believe was not. 



And for the lawfulness of fishing : It may very well 

 be maintained by our Saviour's bidding St. Peter cast 

 his hook into the water, and catch a fish, for money to 

 pay tribute to Caesar. 



And let me tell you, that Angling is of high esteem, 

 and of much use in other nations. He that reads the 

 Voyages of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto t, shall find that 

 there he declares to have found a king and several 

 priests a-fishing. 



* Walton was a good Scripturist, and therefore can hardly be supposed 

 to have been ignorant of the passage in Isaiah, chap. 19.8. " The fisher* 

 " shall mourn, and all they that cast angle upon the .brooks shall lament, 

 " and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish." Which words 

 as they do but imply the use ot jisb-books, he might think not directly to 

 his purpose ; but in the translation of the above prophet by the |learned 

 Bishop Loiut/j, who himself assures me that the word book is truly ren- 

 dered, the passage stands thus : 



" And the fishers shall mourn and lament : 



" All those that cast tie book in the river ; 



" And those that spread nets on the face of the waters shall languish.'* 



The following passage Walton seems likewise to have forgotten when 

 he wrote the above, unless the reason before assigned induced him to reject 

 it : " They take up all of them with the an^le, they catch them in their 

 " net, and gather them in their drag, therefore they rejoice and are glad," 

 Habak/euk, chap. 1 . v. 15. 



f A traveller, whose veracity is much questioned, 



H 



